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Standardized tests have become a hotly contested topic in the world of education. With many teachers and parents arguing that students spend too much time taking tests and not enough time learning, it may seem insane to suggest that teachers test their students even more. However, that\u2019s exactly what we\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n
While standardized tests and other more formal summative assessments may not always be the best for students, quizzes actually have the potential to improve student learning. These low-stakes, more formative assessments encourage students to learn and retain knowledge, while helping teachers better structure instruction in the classroom.<\/p>\n
How could having students take more quizzes possibly reduce their anxiety? It\u2019s simple. Standardized tests and other summative assessments come with high stakes. Quizzes, on the other hand, come with much lower stakes. They\u2019re less formal and\u00a0designed to test a smaller set of skills. The more quizzes you give, the less doing poorly on a single quiz will have a negative effect on a student\u2019s grade, lowering the stakes even more. If you give quizzes regularly, eventually students will become so used to taking quizzes that their nervousness will fade. This will also transfer to bigger tests, making students less likely to face anxiety when it comes time to take those high-stakes standardized tests at the end of a unit or the end of the school year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs that going to be on the test?\u201d is a question commonly heard in the classroom. While teachers want to encourage a love of learning, many students only focus on learning what they know they\u2019ll be tested on. By regularly bringing quizzes into the classroom<\/a>, teachers encourage students to pay attention to all of the material in class. Whether you have a regular quiz schedule or randomly give students pop quizzes, they\u2019ll come to realize that all of the material has the potential to make it on to a quiz in the near future.<\/p>\n When students are only tested on what they know at the end of a unit, during midterms, or finals, they often put off studying until the days before the test. Studies, such as this 2012 UCLA study<\/a>, have shown that cramming for big tests doesn\u2019t work and could actually have a negative effect. By quizzing students regularly, teachers can eliminate the need for cramming and encourage students to study the material on a regular basis.<\/p>\n Also when teachers quiz\u00a0students regularly, students won\u2019t be overwhelmed by the amount of material they need to learn and they won\u2019t have to wonder what they need to study. Instead, teachers can focus the learning on a few key concepts at a time. This will help students maximize their regular studying and give them a chance to build a thorough understanding of each part of a unit.<\/p>\n Rather than only testing students on the big picture, quizzes give teachers a chance to test students on the smaller pieces. For example, you can quiz students on individual chapters of a novel to help build understanding of the text chapter by chapter; or while teaching the periodic table, you can quiz students on individual groups of elements or sections of the table rather than requiring them to learn about the whole table at once. This scaffolding of learning and quizzing students at each step helps make sure they\u00a0have mastered understanding of one part before moving on to the next part.<\/p>\n To be most successful, quizzes should be used as a type of formative assessment. This means they\u2019re used to inform teachers and students and help monitor understanding. So if a quiz shows students haven\u2019t mastered a part of a lesson or are having a difficult time with a particular concept, teachers can modify and adjust their instruction to help cover that concept before it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n Giving students a quiz doesn\u2019t have to take a long time, nor does it require a lot of grading. With online assessment platforms<\/a> such as Help Teaching\u2019s new Test Room<\/a> feature teachers can quickly put together an online quiz and schedule a time for students to take it.\u00a0 Once students take the quiz, teachers can see statistics on student results, allowing them to quickly modify and adjust their instruction or share the results with students.<\/p>\n One of the reasons people criticize standardized tests and other larger summative assessments is that the results don\u2019t really help students. By the time students receive the results from the test, they\u2019ve moved on to the next unit or the next class and have already dumped a lot of the information they learned. Quizzes, on the other hand, give students a chance to gain more immediate feedback. Even if a teacher doesn\u2019t adjust instruction based on student performance, individual students know what skills and concepts they had trouble with and can work on improving their understanding before it comes time for the final assessment.<\/p>\n Perhaps one of the greatest reasons to give quizzes comes from Dr. Henry L. Roediger, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis. Roediger argues that it\u2019s not studying and reviewing materials that helps students remember material, it\u2019s actually quizzing them regularly on the material. In a study by Roediger<\/a>, three different groups were asked to study a series of pictures. One group studied the pictures the entire time. The second group studied the pictures and were quizzed on them once. The third group was quizzed on the pictures every 20 minutes. A week later, the third group still remembered 32 of the 60 original pictures, while the first group only remembered 16.<\/p>\n Aristotle once wrote, \u201cexercise in repeatedly recalling a thing strengthens the memory” and that\u2019s exactly what Roediger argues when he encourages teachers to quiz students more. When students study they simply look to a textbook, notes, or other resources for the answers, but when they take quizzes they must retrieve the information from their own brains. This retrieval process helps the information stick in the brain more, keeping students\u2019 minds sharp and improving their long-term memory. This fits with the \u201cif you don\u2019t use it, you lose it\u201d idea that many people have experienced. Quizzing students also helps improve their brain plasticity<\/a>, keeping their minds sharp and allowing them to regularly create new systems and connections in the brain.<\/p>\n While Roediger and his colleagues who promote Test Enhanced Learning in Classroom (TELC) say that the best quizzes to give students are those with short answer and short essay questions, even multiple-choice, matching, and true\/false questions incorporated into quizzes on a regular basis can have a positive effect on students\u2019 learning. The key is that the quizzes are given regularly and that immediate feedback is offered to students.<\/p>\n Want to see if regular quizzing can help your students? Check out Help Teaching\u2019s Test Maker<\/a> and Test Room<\/a> options to create and quickly administer quizzes.\u00a0 Then share your results in the comments.<\/p>\n Happy quizzing!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Standardized tests have become a hotly contested topic in the world of education. With many teachers and parents arguing that students spend too much time taking tests and not enough time learning, it may seem insane to suggest that teachers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[190],"tags":[45,66,43],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\nQuizzes Encourage Students to Study Regularly<\/h2>\n
Quizzes Help Teachers Focus the Learning<\/h2>\n
Quizzes Allow Students to Build Knowledge Gradually<\/h2>\n
Quizzes Allow Teachers to Modify and Adjust Instruction<\/h2>\n
Quizzes Can Be Completed and Graded Quickly<\/h2>\n
Quizzes Offer More Immediate Feedback<\/h2>\n
Quizzes Help with Long-Term Retention<\/h2>\n
Quizzes Keep Students\u2019 Minds Sharp<\/h2>\n